other dog

I did indeed.

...then I saw a big yellow machine when I delivered the roll-offs at First Piedmont in Ringold, Va. And a Ford Ranger that looked pretty well used- An old Burlington Industries Ford on rt. 220 north of Martinsville. Some old cars a little farther north. Some fine looking poplars on rt.122 a little north of Rocky Mount, Va. I went to Moneta and picked up a 2 stop load going to Strattonville and Warren, Pa. Warren is not my favorite place to go even in the summer time. I got Strattonville off first- the parking lot there was just a solid sheet of ice- did I mention that i'm tired of ice? But I saw plenty more snow and ice on the way to Warren. I went up rt.66 to rt.948. 66 wasn't too bad... And I was expecting 948 to be better, because so many tankers run it to the refinery in Warren. But nooooo...it sucked!..not to mention being rough as hell. I made it to Warren without difficulty though, got unloaded, then went to Sharon, Pa. and loaded up 5 coils going to Lynchburg. Then it got worse...I was coming south on I-79, just south of rt.50 in Clarksburg, W.V. when I felt a little jolt...then another bump. I looked in the mirror and saw a car in the left lane spinning sideways. I assumed the car had hit me so I pulled over on the shoulder. A white suburban pulled over behind me-I thought that was the car I saw spinning out. I started to ask him what the hell he was doing, but it wasn't him. He said he saw it and called 911. He said the car was pretty well torn up in the front, and he didn't know if there were any survivors or not. I waited for the police to get there- the car was a quarter of a mile or so back behind me by the time I got to the shoulder and I couldn't see it because it was over a hill. The police came, got all my information, looked at the trailer- there was glass all over the frame rail and three of my straps were pulled towards the rear. Then another policeman brought the driver of the car, and he looked at the trailer too- he was in surprisingly good shape for the guy in the suburban to wonder if he even survived. Then the policeman said I was free to go, it was my word against his. So I said "what's his word, I ran over him? I was just driving minding my own business, never swerved, changed lanes, or anything, and he hit me." He said "I don't know,I didn't talk to him". So I left, after being there about 45 minutes. It was just raining and 37 degrees at the time of the accident, when I left it was 32 and snowing hard.I made it to Flatwoods and found the last parking spot at the Go-Mart. It snowed all night and all the next morning, I didn't leave until 2pm. They said 19 was so bad that I just ran 79 all the way to Charleston. 79 was good all the way, the turnpike was good, I-64 from Beckley to Va.- not so much. LED lights- they're nice but they produce no heat. My lights are on, but you can't see them for the ice on the trailer. In Lynchburg this morning. I had to shovel the snow off the trailer and break all the ice off my strap winches with a hammer before I could get unloaded. I pretty much hate snow and ice at this point. Then I heard that one of our drivers, Wooly Booger, a good friend of mine, had a heart attack behind the wheel and died yesterday. He had just loaded in Bedford, Va. and was coming east on rt. 460 just east of Bedford when it happened. He'd been over here for cookouts a couple of times last year. He went across the median, all the way across the westbound lanes and ended up in a yard. Hardly a mark on the truck, the right side window in the sleeper and the driver side vent glass popped out when he crossed the median, and that was it.

Pretty rough week this week. At least I got in two full rounds for the first time in several weeks. This winter wasn't really looking too bad...until February rolled around. Passed by Art Reed's when I left Sunday, tried to get a better picture of the machine...wonder what it was used for?..stringing pipe maybe? Then I saw some snow and ice up on rt.20 in W.V. Then I saw some snow and ice up on I-79 in Pa. Then I saw some snow and ice on I-80 in Pa. I was going to Coconut Lake, just west of Meadville, but I took I-80 over to Barkeyville when the road started getting bad so I could park at the truckstop. They rejected a stack of 4x4-14's at Carter Lumber in Coconut Lake because they were "bent and twisted"- they didn't look that bad to me, only about 4 pieces in the whole stack were crooked, but they pay for it and they expect good stuff. They did unload it for me to keep until we can pick it up later, because I had to load roll-off bodies that take the whole trailer floor. I saw some snow and ice on rt.58 going to Greenville. I saw some snow at the dumpster getting place too. Coming back down I-79 I saw some 'quipment at work- I'm tired of seeing snow and ice- i'd rather see scantily clad wimmin, like they have in sunny south Florida!

My fault?!! how can it be my fault if YOU f**# it up? here- Southern Sausage Gravy Serves 8 1 pound bulk pork sausage 1/4 cup all-purpose flour 2 cups milk (2% or whole) Kosher salt and black pepper to taste Hot bistits Warm a large skillet over medium heat. Add the sausage and break into chunks with a spatula. Cook until the meat is crumbled and browned all the way through. Add the flour and cook until dissolved, about 1 minute. Stir in the milk. Cook, whisking frequently, until the gravy is very thick and bubbly (you can add more milk later if you need to thin). Season generously with salt and lots of freshly ground black pepper. Serve with hot bistits.

That's the place, I passed by there again earlier in the week. Used to be the Westvaco yard, I don't know how long ago the woodyard closed.

ain't nuthin' like a V8 Mack!

Wonderful- i'm gonna stop in for the free shower and free sausage, eggs, hashbrowns, and bistits and gravy breakfast for BMT members.

Holy mackerel, you're getting up there Joe- happy birthday! Have a cupcake-

Looks like it, doesn't look like a woodyard any more. Good spot for a scrapco, already had scales, office, and shop, and plenty of room.

Mark, is that place where the Westvaco woodyard used to be? There used to be a B model at the woodyard that you could see from 220. I came up 220 last week going to Moneta and it looked like the woodyard was closed.

I guess he figures it's much better to move that crude oil by rail, there's little chance of a train derailment and explosion- oh, wait...never mind.

Highly interesting stuff, to me anyway. I have seen Spears Mountain in Buckingham, Va. myself and it's still a mystery. We'd go right by the access road to it on the way to Covington. Check this out- http://www.wset.com/story/22982860/the-mystery-of-spears-mountain Back in the early 80's you couldn't get anywhere near it, and the top of that mountain was lit up like a Christmas tree at night. Old "hard rock", who also drove for H.H.Moore and lived in Gladstone,Va. said they "worked on that mountain for years and years, with the biggest bulldozers i've ever seen". And there's very little to be seen on the mountain itself except for the huge buildings- they can also be seen for miles. The rumors were that the whole inside of the mountain had been dug out and the president and other top gummint officials would go there if there was a nuclear attack. They would seal themselves inside, and the only way they could get out was to take a bulldozer that was kept inside, and started periodically to make sure it ran, and knock the door down. Al Moore said he rode up the mountain one time and there were armed guards at the gate, which was about half way up the mountain. They had M16's and axed him what he was doing there. He said he told them he was looking for his hunting dogs- they told him if they saw his dogs they'd let him know, now get the hell out of here. I rode up there myself once, until I got to the locked gate, but at that time there were no guards there. More interesting stuff about Spears Mountain- https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/coldwarcomms/conversations/topics/11699

.

.

Here's one-

And more...I took Jo over to Altavista to the DMV Tuesday, it's conveniently located next door to the liquor store... I saw some gulls flying around, so I threw some chips out... I didn't know they had signs on all the poles there saying not to feed the gulls, or you will be arrested! When I got up Thursday morning, it was looking like this around here- Other Dog barely had enough ground clearance to make it to the bush. I made it out to go load the Charlotte load though- at least I could see a little bit of pavement this time. Saw a pretty neat looking machine at the shop, don't know who's it is or where it came from. Richard Childress' winery on rt.52 in N.C. Crossing Smith Mountain Lake on rt. 122, on the way to Moneta. ...and last but not least, I saw a very poorly photo-chopped girl in Princeton,W.V.

I've been sitting around running the electric bill up more than i've been working lately. I took a load of lumber to Bluefield, Va. Wednesday and came back empty. Then I took a load of steel to Charlotte from Lynchburg and came back to Moneta and loaded lumber for Coconut Lake,Pa. to leave Sunday with. Got a return load of roll-off bodies in Greenville going to Ringold, Va. I saw the radar dome from Bedford when I went to Moneta. I saw a gator before I got to Roanoke. ...on the back of a container. Rt. 460, west of Blacksburg. New River- some equipment in Narrows- and a big Mack truck- Rt. 460 between Narrows and Rich Creek. The New River is to the left, them there hills and the big stack are on the West Virginia side. Who names these roads around here anyway? Lots of big yellow machines in Princeton, W.V. Lowes store in Bluefield. I'm headed back out from behind the store here. I went inside and they said to go back around front and they would unload me in front of the main entrance. They got 20" of snow out there, so I had to go all the way behind the store, turn around in a snow covered parking lot, the go all the way back around to the front, and even then they got the forklift stuck and broke the bands on a pack of 2x4's trying to get me unloaded, dumping them on the trailer. The big stack from W.V, looking towards the Va. line. Four wheelers, dump trucks, trains...the New River is in front of the train, the road curves to the right and crosses the bridge into Va. The New River, from the bridge. A man, in a boat, in the river...fishing. I don't remember exactly how cold it was, but I think it was around 30 degrees. New River- Art Reed's place, Montvale, Va.

The truck over in the corner was pulled and then pushed there with the big fork lift. They had it behind the shop with the hood open when I came in yesterday and everybody was working on looking at it. Jimmy, the head mechanic, came over when I was fueling and said "that truck's gonna need an engine, it's locked up tight now- $35,000...Todd's gonna have a fit!" "What happened?" "driver ran it hot, only had about 2 gallons of anti-freeze in it when he got here with it". "didn't the warning lights, bells, horns, and whistles come on?" "yeah, he said the light was on when he called, I don't know why it didn't shut itself off when it got that hot, unless it did and he just kept restarting it to get it to the shop". I don't know either. I met the guy that was driving it bobtailing west on 460 before I got to the shop. I always say "stuff happens,and it can happen to anybody" but all you used to have was a temperature gauge to keep an eye on, now you've got warning lights for everything, even if a headlight bulb is out it tells you on the dash so there's really no excuse to keep driving if the engine is overheating.

Ah-hah! I found it. It was on this page- http://www.whattofix.com/blog/archives/2007/10/mountain-assaul.php the link to the picture was in the replies.

That's very interesting. I went back and did more research on the radar station on Apple Orchard Mountain to see if it had one of those "super-powered" radars. It might well have been, because when the Air Force base was there, there were three of those large units on the mountain. I found a picture of them last night, but I forgot where I found them. I thought it was operated by the Navy, but it was Air Force, and I thought it was a weather station, but it's not- The mountain also has a large FAA antenna on the top. The antenna is the only working remnant of the old Bedford Air Force Base, which operated on the summit from 1954 to 1974. As many as 120 airmen were stationed on the mountain during those years. http://radomes.org/museum/recent/BedfordAFSVA.html This link shows pics. of more than one, the page I was looking at last night had an aerial photo of them.

Are you where I saw the red H model cab on 360?

We sawed slabs for firewood with a Farmall C with a belt driven saw when I was a kid. Don't know what ever happened to the saw, or if it's still around.

I started to buy some too, but something just didn't look right...I that that squiggly icing on that one should have been all the way around, instead of just on one side.

This was my favorite book when I was a young'un. I bought it for my son when he was little, and i'm pretty sure he still has it or bought a copy for his son.

oh...I wasn't even close!